By Chris Elliott…
Since the COVID-19 lockdown started in Northern Cyprus we have been receiving weekly, letters from expat readers located around the world and wanting to return to their homes in the TRNC. When we published these letters we shared them with the Facebook group “TRNC residents trying to get home“ where attempts were being made to contact these people and making a list of their details. To the best of our knowledge until now, various people had tried to make contact with the TRNC government to raise the question of when these people could come home but now with an initiative from The Foreign Residents in the TRNC (TFR) perhaps more progress can be made.
Chairman Horst Gutowski of The Foreign Residents in the TRNC – TFR recently had a meeting with the Secretary of the TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify the situation and decided to send an email to all members plus shared this information with the Anglo Turkish Association and the British Residents’ Society to also share this with their members so those who are outside the TRNC and have their only home here, could send a completed questionnaire to the TFR secretary so the numbers and perhaps locations of people stuck outside the TRNC could then be made known to the authorities.
For guidance, we are showing the TFR members newsletter which has been replicated by the other NGO’s to build this vital database of expats and their location who wish to return to their only home in the TRNC.
TFR
The Foreign Residents in the
TRNC
17th May 2020
Dear Member
As you may be aware several of our members are currently stranded outside Northern Cyprus with no idea when they will be allowed to return, due to the borders being closed as part of the restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19. The TRNC Government is now arranging for Turkish Cypriots to be repatriated from the beginning of June as the first phase of their repatriation plan. All Cypriots returning will be required to go into quarantine for 14 days in a hotel at the governments’ expense, to ensure no one entering the country re-introduces COVID-19 to the island. Depending on the results of this first wave of repatriations they intend to allow Foreigners who live in the TRNC to return, possibly commencing in the middle of June. Anyone returning will need to go into quarantine for 14 days when they return. It is hoped that this could commence from the middle of June, but this will be dependent on how the first phase progresses. The Foreign Residents Association is participating in discussions with the TRNC Government about how and when Foreign Residents in Northern Cyprus can return.
To help in these discussions it would be very helpful if we could understand how many of our members are outside of the country and want to return.
If you live in Northern Cyprus, and are stranded outside the island and want to return, please can you reply to this email by completing the attached form, by midnight on Friday 22nd May. We need this information to help us understand the specific situation of our members to inform our discussion with the government, however we will not pass any personal information you provide to the government without your consent.
Thank you for your assistance and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.
Yours sincerely
Horst Gutowski
Chairman
Editors note We understand that both TFR and ATA have had a big response from their members to their individual newsletters. For any expats who have a home in Northern Cyprus and are wanting to return and are not a member of ATA, BRS or TFR we ask you to send your details as shown below through the contact box on this page below the questions asked.
